“Apple yesterday conceded corporate IT workers are ‘always’ complaining about its secretive product roadmap — but warned the only way to get up to speed is to invest thousands of dollars and a full working week attending its annual US-based developer conference,” Renai LeMay reports for ZDNet Australia.
“‘People always complain that Apple doesn’t give systems admins or systems architects enough of a roadmap of where our technologies are going,’ the vendor’s Asia-Pacific head of developer relations, Craig Bradley, told an audience of third-party developers in Sydney yesterday,” LeMay reports. “Bradley was referring to Apple’s notorious culture of corporate secrecy that sees very little information released about the vendor’s products before they actually hit the market.”
There is “one way out of the Apple dilemma: go to Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), held annually and approaching in August,” LeMay reports. “Those attending the conference get a clear roadmap of Apple’s software development plans up to 18 months ahead.”
“Apple’s internal engineers also attend, solving problems and demonstrating technology. And that’s not all — Apple’s Cupertino campus also plays host to what Bradley described as ‘pretty much a beer-bash.’ These privileges don’t come cheap though, with attendees paying up to US$1595 for the five day event and being required to comply with non-disclosure provisions about confidential information available there,” LeMay reports.
LeMay reports, “Bradley said Apple would ‘definitely’ be demonstrating its new Leopard operating system at this year’s conference, although he declined to reveal any details ahead of time.”
Full article with more about the challenges of providing Macintosh-based solutions to businesses here.
MacDailyNews Take: Better to be secretive than stagnant.
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Related article:
Apple confirms ‘sneak peek preview’ of Mac OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006 this August – April 18, 2006
I wanna go.
This as opposed to the countless thousands/millions windows people spend on their systems in terms of security software and not upgrading their software since it takes 5 years for anything remotely new to be released and then when it is they have to spend much more on new hardware then even more debugging said new software.
i think they could probably make educated guesses, i know i can, blue ray and 11n airport, not too distant future etc, sure this applies for more technical stuff too.
3 More days to save $400 on WWDC!
Not every company can afford to send their IT staff to a conference that costs US$1595.
That said, I think that Apple’s roadmap for the next six months is clear. The pro line will be transitioned to Intel chips, at least some of them should have 64-bit support. And by early 2007 at the latest, OS 10.5 will support Micro$oft Windows in one way or another.
I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be “left in the dark” on some of the specifics of Apple’s above plans than be lied to by Micro$oft regarding Office, Origami, and Vista. Besides, I think that Apple learned from the Osborne fiasco in the 1980’s not to release too much information prior to a product launch.
“Better to be secretive than stagnant.”
…as if those are the only two options.
Bradley said: People always complain that Apple doesn’t give systems admins or systems architects enough of a roadmap of where our technologies are going …
It’s true. And Sun and HP don’t give much of a clue about where their Enterprise-level systems are going, either. The PC makers tell you “faster, more, lighter” as it’s all about hardware tweaks for them.
And then there’s Microsoft. They’ve been telling us where they are going for years … but they haven’t gone anywhere in the meantime.
So … what is it these people really want? OS X is evolving faster than any other OS out there, is this a problem? It is also stabler than the one evolving slower than nearly any other OS out there. It isn’t hard to join the ranks of Apple Developers, thus keeping yourself well informed as to where Joe Mac will be in a couple of months – nor financially painful. They could likely get by simply investing the time they would otherwise spend clearing the mess from their PCs.
First of all, it’s nice to see that the business IT community is interested enough in Macintoshes to make this problem significant.
Second of all, M.X.N.T.4.1. above has a very good point. If you want to know what Microsoft will be doing 5 years from now, there is no way to know unless they tell you in advance of product release dates. If you want to know what Apple will be doing 5 years from now, just follow the trend of all the other products they release before then. You can’t do this with Microsoft because there are very very few real changes in their technology over time.
Apple knows that the only way it can stay in business is by being highly innovative and an early adopter of emerging technologies. In order to protect it’s position against companies that spend as much as 10x the money each year on R&D they must keep a lid on things. Without the NDA’s every little detail would be trumpeted on the Mac & Tech web, negating most of the market advantage their work and expense would gain.
It’s the price of their business model.
Oh please. After years of being an Apple systems administrator, I’ve seldom found direction to be too difficult to anticipate. I didn’t anticipate the Intel thing, but it doesn’t really make any difference.
Only one thing would derail me, and that’s if Apple dropped OS X (ala John Davorak predictions).
I anticipate better Macs.
Faster Macs.
Relatively expensive Macs.
I know that Apple will not cause me to have to change my entire network infrastructure.
Apple will announce any new major projects within a respectable amount of time. It isn’t really necessary to go to the developer’s conference… just fun.
Okay…Apple’s response blows. IT complains that they don’t know enough about Apple’s roadmap to be able to make informed decisions, and Apple’s response is “yeah, sorry about that. The only solution is to spend $1600 + air fare/hotel to come listen to us in a grossly impersonal setting.”
That’s not going to go over particularly well…
MDN: You’re idiots on this topic.
As an Apple admin and support person in a very big entertainment company, I can tell you that being secretive is NOT good for people like me and my users.
Like it or not, corporations – even in the creative industries – want to know what’s going on before they drop $500k on new systems.
Apple hurts making inroads because if this.
All other companies do this, and Apple doesn’t need to sell iPod secrets to help the cause.
Scott
’tis better to have a secretive product roadmap than a fraudulent one.
“…Like it or not, corporations – even in the creative industries – want to know what’s going on before they drop $500k on new systems….”
Only one time in Apple’s history have I felt this way and that’s when the company was borderline about to collapse. We didn’t know if there was going to be a new Mac OS, or if there was going to be a new Apple. The company was loosing 100,000,000 dollars a year and had no clear direction.
Since then any IT Director with half a clue can surmise what is important as far as the company’s product line futures.
Other companies are just as secretive, it’s just that no one cares. Do you know what Dell plans for the next 12 months? No. Do you know what HP plans for the next 12 months? No.
Did you know that IBM was going to dump its PC business on Lenovo.
No.
Even the Intel thing didn’t make a difference. If you spent 500K on PowerPC machines, the life of those machines is just as viable as the life of Intel machines.
On top of all this, it has been my experience that if you’re really going to spend 500K, as you say, Apple will bring you in and answer any directional questions you might have under non-disclosure.
Hell they do that for me on the prospect of a mere $50K. They’ve been kind enough to tell me to wait on purchases, etc.
So get real, get over it, the company has the RIGHT to be as secretive as it chooses.
“Apple yesterday conceded corporate IT workers are ‘always’ complaining about its secretive product roadmap…”
Pardon the sarcasm here, but that implies that corporate IT actually gives a hoot about the Mac! I agree with Davidlow saying, “First of all, it’s nice to see that the business IT community is interested enough in Macintoshes to make this problem significant.”
I too hope that the corporate IT world is warming up to the Mac. More interest translates into more business-related software. Assuming that additional developers will write GOOD (well thought out) software for the Mac, it will lead to computers that are actually useful and dependable as well as more secure in the corporate and manufacturing environment.
@ the loniousMac
I agree.
However Dell, HP and even IBM seldomly make the huge platform changes Apple makes at what seems a drop-of-a-hat. This time last year I was wainting for 3.0 Ghz G5 PowerMacs…now I’m waiting for Intel based Mac Pros. Why did it seem like at a “drop-of-a-hat”? Becuase Apple doesn’t communicate well with its vendors, developers or customers about upcoming platform changes. IT professionals are all about risk management. Windows has virus and problems, yes. But Microsoft is very upfront with their product roadmap. And given the dependency on Microsoft that Dell, HP, et, al. have on Microsoft, you know that their roadmaps always closely resemble whatever Microsoft is planning to release. Although their product sucks, M$ is up-front with IT professionals, telling them what features they can expect to support 18 months out.
Apple needs to change to survive. They did it with the platforms, now they need to do it with the info. I am an Apple Fanboy and proud of it! I’ve been using Apple products since the early 1980’s. I just think its time for a change of approach.
a big powerful unethical opponent, so secrecy is needed, sorry to tell.
With all the savings from moving to a Mac shop, their IT staff should have plenty of spare time and plenty of spare cash; Yes?
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Realist,
Secretive and stagnant aren’t the only two options.
There’s always Linux.
People always complain that Apple doesn’t give systems admins or systems architects enough of a roadmap of where our technologies are going,
Well DUH!!! How is Apple or Dell or HP being able to disclose anything when everything relies upon the manufactor of new processing technologies?
Look at IBM, they couldn’t produce a cool G5 chip for laptops and Intel could (sort of, it’s still hot, just not burning hot like a G5 is)
So how can computer manufactors lead when they are so reliant upon processors and third party manufacters?
Look at BlueRay, Apple is jumping at the bit to be able to put out the first BlueRay DVD burners in the new Mac Pro’s (PowerMac G5 replacements) because it will sell a heck of a lot of hardware for the video industry.
But again Apple has to wait for Sony to get their sh*t working.
All these problems also affect everyone else in the industry, more for Apple because they are cutting edge and every day of being first means they sell more hardware than anyone else.
Apple is a opportunist, they can develop and market, but are relaint upon the industry for their supplies.
As an Apple admin and support person in a very big entertainment company, I can tell you that being secretive is NOT good for people like me and my users.
Like it or not, corporations – even in the creative industries – want to know what’s going on before they drop $500k on new systems.
Your so full of sh*t.
In the creative industry they are always adopting new technologies to gain the upper advantage against the compeition. To produce faster and cheaper, with better results.
Anyone with internet access can easily figure out by reading tech news what is going on as far as computer technology advances.
Apple is on the cutting edge and really can’t say what they are up to until they find out if the new technology works or not, if it can be marketed , if the software industry will support it.
We know there are new technologies in the pipeline. Apple announced they will support BlueRay, so that’s up to Sony to get working. Apple announced they are going to use Intel processors, that’s already happening. (although the possibility of using the Cell processor in Mac Pro’s (PowerMac G5 replacement) is a possibility if they can get it to work and software makers to program for it.)
All the creative industry can do is wait, and when the hardware and software is ready to buy for a life cycle of 5-7 years or until something better comes along.
This is why I call BS on your comment. Right now the PPC Quad PowerMac is the machine to have and use until this whole new BlueRay/intel etc transition is complete.
SO WAIT
Talk about full of shit – static mesh, you’re wading in it.
5-7 years life cycle?
You must work in a dentist’s office.
The PPC/Quad will be outdated as soon as the new dual-duo core Intel’s ship. They are the future, not a three-year old model.
And your (and other’s) understanding of IT is laughable. You think big, bloated entertainment companies adjust fast to compete? You’re so clueless.
Corporate IT is so scared to move to anything new – forget Apple for the moment. They continually move to “new” technology only after it’s three years old. All of my acquaintances at other entertainment companies tell me the same stories.
Just now moving to Exchange 2003?
XP on the dekstop?
Yes.
You little boys that work for Geek Squad need to get real jobs – then come back and post.
And, BTW, HP/Compaq and others do give us 18-month roadmaps. Even Apple admits to this as being an issue, you dolts.
However Dell, HP and even IBM seldomly make the huge platform changes Apple makes at what seems a drop-of-a-hat.
How many times has Apple changed processors in their lifetime? Twice?
Did the computer do the same job as it did before? Yes, so what’s the big deal?
This time last year I was wainting for 3.0 Ghz G5 PowerMacs…now I’m waiting for Intel based Mac Pros.
IBM couldn’t produce a 3 Ghz G5 unfortunatly and they couldn’t produce cool G5 processors either. Not Apple’s fault, they need to produce computers to sell. So they easily switched to Intel as they have control over the OS.
Computer still does what people need it to do.
Why did it seem like at a “drop-of-a-hat”? Becuase Apple doesn’t communicate well with its vendors, developers or customers about upcoming platform changes.
bullshit, Apple announced they were switching to Intel processors long ago
http://appleintelfaq.com/
Windows has virus and problems, yes. But Microsoft is very upfront with their product roadmap.
And how many times has Vista release has been “pushed back”?, it has totally fscked up the 2006 holiday buying and school season for Dell and HP.
You see the mistake M$ has made? Apple doesn’t announce anything until it’s ready for use because the future is unseen, who knows what processor can’t be made, or OS development problems occur.
We just wait and then buy, sit on it’s lifecycle and make a decision when new technologies show up.
And given the dependency on Microsoft that Dell, HP, et, al. have on Microsoft, you know that their roadmaps always closely resemble whatever Microsoft is planning to release. Although their product sucks, M$ is up-front with IT professionals, telling them what features they can expect to support 18 months out.
And what advantage is that? Vista is in beta and nobody in IT is going to buy it in volume unless it comes preinstalled on new hardware anyway.
The PPC/Quad will be outdated as soon as the new dual-duo core Intel’s ship. They are the future, not a three-year old model.
Your a frigging idiot.
The present Core Duo’s are only JUST CATCHING UP to the G5 processor in performance. Why do you think hundreds of X-Serve and PowerMac G5’s were sold to make supercomputers and renderfarms for when it was released?
Because the G5 was totally kick ass processor and still is compared to these Core Duos. It will be the NEXT generation of Intel processors that will finally exceed it. here educate yourself idiot.
http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html
And, BTW, HP/Compaq and others do give us 18-month roadmaps.
Wow, you change your hardware and software every 18 months? Real good ROI your getting there.
With professional level Mac’s our turnover is 5-7 years, because the hardware works so well. You must be on the Dell and HP cheapo wagon, buy and burn, buy and burn.
Hey it keeps you in a job right? We don’t need no frigging IT on Mac’s usually.
The present Core Duo’s are only JUST CATCHING UP to the G5 processor in performance. Why do you think hundreds of X-Serve and PowerMac G5’s were sold to make supercomputers and renderfarms for when it was released?
Whoops I meant to say “hundreds of thousands of X-Server and PowerMac G5’s…”